quick preview of the weekend:
Cam Newton picks up his second win at the "fortress" Georgia Dome. Calling it.
Cincy go 4-2 due to the Colts being a total mess.
in a surprisingly important match, the Lions edge out the equally impressive niners. Defence everywhere. MEGATRON.
Giants and Bills also suddenly an important one, this game could literally go anywhere.
Skins beat Eagles, the world lol's a bit more.
Easy wins for Green Bay, Pittsburgh, Baltimore (this won't actually be easy at all) Oakland, New Orleans, Jets.
In the other two big games, Bears and Vikes try to out-embarass each other, while the Pats and Cowboys and a good ol' fashion shootout, breaking 100 points in the first quarter.

A win for Carolina would be huge this weekend. I'm a big fan of Cam, hope he can get it done for them (for my fantasy team if nothing else).

With CJ2K on his bye week i'm left with starting MJD against Pittsburgh (i don't like starting players against the Steelers) and either Hightower or Daniel Thomas. I've put in Thomas at the moment because Shanahan seems to be losing faith in Hightower and giving more carries to Torain but i'm not sold on him yet

look out for the Skysports.com little ident commercial where the girls in the football shirts type and turn to the camera and whatnot. The woman in the Urlacher shirt is my line manager at work, and because she did this she was allowed to put some people on the guestlist to the NFL Wembley Sky aftershow party at the Playboy Club, of which one is me. KAKOW!

felt strange hoping he'd get that TD (we'd won the game by that point anyway). I also got annoyed at Mike Wallace's huge TD at the end because the guy in my fantasy match up had him. Fantasy is ruining my loyalty

Also, I'm not cool enough to be in a Playboy Club. While exciting, the whole affair mught just end up being a bit embarrassing.

I'm not a huge fan of the Sky coverage; instead of using the interminable American break schedule to cut to Mike Carlson dropping some knowledge, they just incessently babble about total shit for the most part. I assume their showing the Bucs this week as part of their desperate bid to flog more Wembley tickets, which will seriously backfire if they're as hideous as they were last week

If there was a London based team then obviously I'd cheer them on but I've been a Steelers fan for years, I'm not interested in changing my support at this point and I imagine that's the same for most UK based NFL fans. The only Steelers games I've missed over the last 5 or so seasons have been because of the Wembley games which I'm happy to do once a season but not every week

i kinda feel to really do it there needs to be a northern/scottish team too, and then you're really talking silly.

similar to your concerns, the second Baltimore (if ever) get announced i'll be there in a flash. Annoyingly the only Wembley game I retrospectively would have def gone to (had I still been relatively new to the game) was the Chargers/Saints, which was a fantastic match, but also because they are two teams I enjoy watching a lot.

there simply isn't enough money and interest. Once a year is about right, I reckon they could easily stretch to a game at Murrayfield or Old Trafford too, but apart from that, it won't work. I know its not quite the same but there is a reason why NFL Europe folded.

other than the Bucs' one Superbowl appearance. And the Bears were massive in the late 80's/early 90's meaning they (along with the Skins and the Raiders) have a massive UK audience already due to that being the only other time there was a huge interest here.

it needs to be more grass-roots stuff, get people interested at an earlier age so that the uni leagues and amateur leagues improve that way rather than just dumping a pro team in London and hoping that everyone buys season tickets.

The NFL isn't bothered about doing it this way because their name wouldn't be all over it if they did

The Bears' strengths (good run O) are somewhat cancelled out by our own (good run D), and their weaknesses (dodgy O-line, Cutler) will be exploited by the likes of Jared Allen. It all depends on whether we can generate any offense really, we probably won't be able to.

I'd probably quite happily adopt a London team that I could go watch regularly, even if only as a 2nd team

if it was a national based team rotating grounds or one based further afield, which I might get to see once a season at best I'm not sure I'd be all that interested

I'd imagine this would be a similar situation to others around the country - the appeal of a UK-based franchise would be in going to the games, I quite happily follow a team I can't go see already so I don't really need another even if it is in the same country

But since then he's been really good. He's the ONLY thing the Rams are going to do this year, however much that is. I really should hold off for a couple of weeks until a couple of my guys who've been injured and on byes have a chance to stat-up a bit. But I'm just too god damned impatient, I love this whole cooking up trades nonsense.

Which is next week. I don't really want rid at all, he's an incredible backup, but I thought I'd be able to get someone pretty great in return. Not so far. Send me your dubious trade anyway, I'll treat it with all due respect, much as you did ;)

I've seen him a couple of times this year. He looks genuinely unstoppable with someone decent throwing him the ball, you just have to lob it somewhere near him. He's just massive. Miles ahead of the competition in my opinion, Fitzgerald, Johnson and Welker be damned.

For any rubberneckers interested in our dealings the trade is Chris Johnson and Matt Ryan (Heaton Pigeons) for Matt Stafford and Daniel Thomas (Cirque de Souffle). I don't dare ask for people's thoughts.

they basically went through all his stats and attributes to show that he has better reach than any NBA player in history (i.e better than Shaq) and has a catching radius the size of a double garage.

Detroit are building something pretty special there, if Stafford progresses at the same rate i think you're looking at one of the all time great QB/WR partnerships in the same vein as Montana/Rice or Brady/Moss

Sorry I have been on these NFL threads much but I'm now traveling for year so am only getting little bits of internet access. To be fair my craic is shite anyhow so no loss really.

Wee bit nervous about my fantasy match up this week, lots of players on a bye. Pretty happy to be unbeaten so far though after drafting at 10th. It's going to get harder now I think though and I have been lucky with injury's so far.

Anyone looking for a trade btw? I seem to have loads of WR's. Deadwrong my apology for not getting back to you with a counter trade is up above!

Its funny because I called the Pack for Superbowl quite early last year because on the games they won, they played like this, but then they lost some stupid ones too, and it mostly seemed liked a confidence thing, but ever since week 16 last year they've had that confidence and its incredible!

We've a horrible schedule from here. The only team we've beaten who are possibly good was the Bills last night. We've lost to two poor teams.
We're leading the division but could well come bottom of the division. We have easily the toughest schedule in the NFC East. The other teams don't have to play the Packers or the Saints.

The Vikes were atrocious last night. Da Bears managed to protect Cutler by leaving the odd TE in to block, we didn't adapt at all (incidentally lack of mid-game adjustments has really killed this team in recent years) and Cutler picked us apart. Forte is immense, probably my favourite RB apart from Peterson. So smooth.

The one positive was Ponder's cameo. He looked great for his first competitive appearance. Good pocket presence and a quick release, which is just what you need with a dodgy o-line.

a win's a win though. Also, I dunno what you're talking about, the G-men have been real impressive these last few games, Eli's stopped throwing picks, Manningham, Nicks and Cruz are all huge receivers, Brandon Jacobs and Bradshaw are built like brick-shithouses, the defence has been making big plays

to see that Brady is on a bye this week - it being the same week Vick is on a bye. It's going to be a backup QB BLOODBATH in our match this week. If you're serious about ditching Cutler, though, I recommend Grossman. Looks back to his best.

what are you after? I'm heading that way at lunch so can have a look at what they've got

wouldn't advise trying to pick anything up on the day, merch stalls were carnage last time

availability of jerseys in the UK seems to be worse than ever at the mo (even through the NFL UK store), I think they might be winding things down a bit prior to Nike taking over production next season. hopefully that may make things a bit easier

Not sure I can lose a WR, I'm already starting Plaxico as it is. I'll consider it but at the moment I'm leaning towards sucking it up and starting Cutler, if only because it's the Bucs defence and they won't have home field advantage.

He's not worth a first round, but this is Oaklands best chance in years of getting to the playoffs and they need a decent QB. Palmer is just about good enough to help get them there, as they only need a competent QB, not a stellar one, what with the weapons they have around them.

for some reason. I was just gonna have a gander at everything, rather than get something specific. I agree what you mean about the merch stalls, that was crazy last year. I'm hoping that they put some items on the NFLUK website before the game and I can get a couple of things through that instead.

its so short term its kind of silly, it's only going to help them this season and even then, its never going to be a deep playoff run. I understand they needed to act fast but they've given up way too much for a dude who not only hasn't played this year, but has been getting staggeringly worse year-by-year. 2009 was a fluke/other teams were shite.

Always a massively overrated QB, wasn't worth a 1st round pick in his prime let alone when he's 31 and spent the last 6 months on his sofa thinking he was retired.

The way he walked out on Cinci and the fact he initially requested to be traded to an NFC west team shows his mentality, he ain't cut out for the NFL anymore. I'm disapointed in Oakland for making this deal; they had a couple of seasons where they were actually making smart moves and drafting much better than in the Russell era and now they've thrown away the next few seasons on this guy

but some guy posted his thoughts on what the new Nike jerseys would look like, some of them are ridiculous others i really like. They aren't real but are based on similar changes Nike have made with their Pro Combat jerseys in NCAA

I definitely think Nike will add feathers to the Seahawks, Eagles, and Cardinals jerseys like they have with Oregon. Atlanta should definitely go with the all black jersey; they had a special edition one during the Vick years which I loved and almost bought

Its a great way to extend the fan base and generate support for a new sport. The Seattle Sounders have obviously copied the colours of the Seahawks to try and win over 'hawks fans and the New England Revolution have obviously kept the same Patriots theme; they should have just created 'Soccer' equivalents of NFL teams

I don't think they're in a really bad way. They did just draft Pryor and he's supposed to be pretty good (I've not seen any tape on him, so don't really know)

I agree they gave up way too much for Palmer though. Really though, that was the ONLY way Mike Brown was gonna give him up, via a stupid offer and by one of his friends. What other QB options did Oakland have out there? Answer: Not any.